When it comes to money for on-scene communications equipment, volunteer fire departments usually are strapped for cash. Yet their need for such equipment is as pressing as it is for career departments like FDNY.

Here are suggestions for some inexpensive on-scene communications equipment with volunteer fire departments — and their budgets — specifically in mind.

Resource monitoring

Keeping track of who has arrived on scene and how they are deployed is a major headache for incident commanders, especially for volunteers who already are pushed to the limit. SRI International is a not-for-profit research institute that aims to “see a problem and have a group of researchers, engineers and Ph.D.s tackle it,” says Terry McGowan, manager of field operations. Its solution is called the Mobile Mesh Communications System, which uses a dual-band radio in the 5-GHz and 4.9-GHz spectrums.

SRI's researchers designed portable in-truck mesh to address the needs of the military, first responders and education systems. Any Mesh radio within the system can communicate with any other Mesh radio in the system, instead of through one central gateway, as is the case with conventional LMR radios and dispatch. This means that signals travel between radios by whatever path is most readily available; should one radio in the network fail, the signals simply will go through the rest.

A major difference between SRI's meshing technology and other mesh systems, according to McGowan, is that SRI is the only system that is software-based and comes with a user interface application designed for first responders that integrates mapping technology with GPS, video, chat and white boarding features, all using existing systems within the municipality. The application simply needs to be loaded on a computer.

But what does this mean beyond the architecture? The system automatically connects each mesh transmitter-equipped truck to the others, and sends their location data to any laptop computer already installed in the vehicles. Many volunteer fire departments won't have wireless laptops widely installed, but chances are that at least one vehicle — likely the incident commander's car — will have such a device onboard and connected to dispatch. Data sent from the other mesh-equipped trucks will update the incident commander automatically on who is at the scene and where they are located at any given time.

“If you have video cameras installed on your trucks, this data also can be carried across the mesh network,” says McGowan. “All of this data can be sent back to dispatch, keeping them apprised of what is happening at the scene.”

As the software can be loaded on an existing hardware infrastructure, the system can be deployed starting at $1,000 per user. A more customized system would include vehicle-mounted hardware and software.

Direct connect

Public safety officials understandably are leery about relying on commercial wireless networks for mission-critical communications. In times of crisis, these networks can become overloaded with traffic, keeping users from connecting with the outside world.

Sprint's Nextel Direct Connect operates on a separate network from Sprint's commercial customers and has the extra ability to provide push-to-talk service to people within a predefined talk group. Direct Connect can provide service reliability akin to a dedicated land mobile radio system. Granted, using Direct Connect is not the same as running your own network where everything is controlled in-house, but Sprint does take responsibility for maintaining Direct Connect, and its national footprint makes interoperability at a mutual aid scene easy to achieve.

“It is possible, using Direct Connect handsets in conjunction with satellite dispatch services, to communicate with teams regardless of where they need to deploy,” says Scott Smith, Sprint's national manager of dispatch communications. “This means that firefighters using Nextel Direct Connect handsets can still stay in touch with the outside world, even if the entire local cellular and radio networks go down, as was the case during Hurricane Katrina.”

Individual Direct Connect handsets start at $39.99 and unlimited service costs $99.99 per month. If members of a volunteer department switch to Nextel Direct Connect for their personal use, a department may be able to reduce per-user costs. If also used as members' personal phones, a department can use these handsets to send out mass alerts when their volunteers are needed.

Interoperable radios

Communications-Applied Technology's ICRI, or Incident Commanders' Radio Interface, is one of the most affordable radio interoperability bridges available. The reason is its simplicity: Once portable radios and telephones have been plugged into the unit, the ICRI transfers the incoming audio between them.

The original ICRI unit interconnected up to six radios and telephones at once, at a cost between $2,000 to $3,000 per unit. Since then, the company has developed a family of ICRIs that can accept anywhere from two to 10 input sources. The ICRI also is available in a backpack unit (ICRI-WF) and a two-radio version with cable reel that can double as a repeater (ICRI-2P). It can be used to extend coverage inside buildings, basements or tunnels where radio reception is a problem.

For volunteer fire departments, the ICRI provides an inexpensive, easy-to-use interoperability solution. Agencies responding to the incident scene can plug in their radios, and the ICRI will ensure that each network can connect to the others.

Mobile data terminal

In a perfect world, all fire departments large and small would have rugged laptop computers in their vehicles. But the price tag for just one of these PCs keeps such technology out of reach for many volunteer fire departments. Thankfully, there are lower-cost solutions such as WiPath Communications' WDT3000 Mobile Data Terminal available. Priced comparable to an entry-level consumer laptop, the WDT3000 is a ruggedized MDT designed for public safety applications. “The WDT3000 will provide a first responder with the main critical functions such units provide at a fraction of the cost,” says George Rishfeld, WiPath's vice president of North America.

The WDT3000 is a pedestal-mounted unit with a built-in QWERTY keyboard in its lower half, and a 240- by 64-pixel graphical sunlight readable display in its upper half. The display uses a graphical layout similar to those found in DOS-based laptop computers: It can display characters and numbers clearly, but lacks the resolution for complex graphics, photographs or video. Stylistically, the unit resembles Motorola's older MDTs. It is designed for straightforward text entry and response, and has ports for a GPS receiver, printer and bar-code reader.

The unit runs on WiPath's MDT operating system as a network-connected terminal to perform job management functions, messaging and GPS management.

In the first mode, the WDT3000 can interconnect to the department's data network over conventional two-way radio, commercial wireless networks or satellite links.

The job management area allows the unit to summarize all jobs assigned to it on a single-line basis, details all fields related to a specific job, allows data entry into these jobs, monitors job status and allows extra log data to be added to files. The Messaging area supports simple text messages from and to the unit; and the GPS management function allows the WDT3000 to collect locational data from a connected external GPS receiver.

WiPath's PDT2000 Paging Data Terminal is priced well below $1,000. Used by the Sedona (Ariz.) Fire Department, this device is a one-way pager that displays incoming messages on a large graphical LCD screen. When mounted inside a command vehicle, the device can show the driver incoming page texts in a format that is easy to read, and send those messages to a connected printer. Other options include the WiPath N7000 GPS-enabled navigation system with a 7-inch display and a range of small thermal printers for in-vehicle use.

Statewide radio network

One way volunteer fire departments can improve their communications on scene and off is by joining a statewide radio network, in those states where such systems exist.

In Florida, for instance, the Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System provides public safety agencies with access to this network for a monthly cost of $9 per radio. Operating on a M/A-COM 800-MHz EDACS system, SLERS currently serves 16,537 public safety radio users in Florida. Its 200 radio transmitters cover 98% of Florida and reach up to 200 miles offshore.

Virginia and Pennsylvania also are pursuing statewide radio solutions; check Google.com to see which states are doing so as well.

Local amateur radio

Amateur radio operators are legendary for their willingness to aid public safety during emergencies. For instance, hams aided firefighters during the recent Martin Fire in the hills above Santa Cruz, Calf., in which 10 buildings and 600 acres were burned.

Amateur-manned radios were “crackling with traffic as hams across the area transferred information, made requests and made sure the various agencies, from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department, were kept abreast of the progress in fighting the fire and the needs that arose in the area,” says Bill Moffitt, a Santa Clara Valley section public information coordinator for the American Radio Relay League.

For volunteer fire departments, amateur radio operators represent an accessible, knowledgeably manned and free communications channel that can be used to supplement a department's primary radio system. The key is to create relationships with radio hobbyists before an incident occurs, so that ground rules for their assistance are established. Once this has been done, hams can be brought into safe areas at incident scenes to provide ancillary communications capacity. Typically, they handle lower-priority traffic on behalf of first responders, so that the public safety channels can be reserved for mission-critical communications.

---

James Careless is a freelance journalist who regularly covers public safety issues, including communications. His credits include Law and Order, Government Video, and Fire Fighting in Canada magazines.

For More Info

American Radio Relay League, www.arrl.org

Florida's Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System www.macom-wireless.com/slers/join.asp

Incident Radio Commanders' Interface, www.c-at.com

Sprint Nextel Direct Connect, www.sprint.com

SRI Mobile Mesh Communication System, www.sri.com

WiPath Communications, www.wipath.com